Striving to make everyday business tasks more engaging, a growing number of firms, including International Business Machines Corp. and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., are incorporating elements of videogames into the workplace.

They’re deploying reward and competitive tactics commonly found in the gaming world to make tasks such as management training, data entry and brainstorming seem less like work. Employees receive points or badges for completing jobs or meeting time limits for assignments, for example. Companies also may use leaderboards, which let players view one another’s scores, to encourage friendly competition and motivate performance, experts say.

So begins this insightful WSJ.com article discussing how a growing number of companies are now incorporating gaming theory and gaming principles into the workplace.

To better understand why Gartner is estimating that 70% of large corporations will be using gaming techniques by 2014, I encourage you to read this future scenario I recently wrote on gaming: In the Future, It’s All a Game.

Interested in other future scenarios by Futurist Jack Uldrich? Check out these recent posts:

3D Manufacturing: The Shape of Things to Come

Crime by Design: The Future of Crime